Interview with Brett Woitunski of Pure Volume
ID: Brett Woitunski
Age: Twenty Three
Coordinates: Boston, MA
Title: Business Relations / Creative Director – pureVOLUME.com
Mission Statement: In just a few short months, pureVOLUME.com has revolutionized independent music on the Internet. It has made it possible for all bands, big and small, to have a web presence and share their music with the world. Nearly 41,000 artists have signed up for PV as of July 2004 and the numbers grow by the hour. The site is not beneficial to just bands, but listeners who seek new music as well. With the click of a button, people from all over the world can sample thousands and thousands of artists and groups from several different genres. Success on PV has brought success in real life to many bands in the form of show requests, tour offers and even recording contracts. The site is a indispensible tool in the music community and they are here to stay!
BA: So Brett, are you one of the founding fathers of purevolume?
Brett: Yes, myself and two others.
BA: When did this project begin?
Brett: PureVolume officially launched on dec 1st, 2003. It went from being something we talked about to something we were actually working on when we heard MP3.com was shutting down.
BA: Would you say a considerable amount of your current users are past mp3.com users?
Brett: Absolutely. MP3.com left a hole in the music community that we’re doing our best to patch up.
BA: Agreed! What made you think that you had what it takes, at 23 years old, to fill the shoes of a corporate giant such as mp3.com? In other words, what drove you put such an incredible amount of work into a project that could’ve turned out to be another insignificant speck on the world wide web? Quite the risk wasn’t it?
Brett: I remember being on MP3.com and getting lost. I couldn’t find my way back to something basic, like the forums, and at the time i thought “the design/navigation of this site could be better” We knew there would be other sites out there, but taking risks is fun, and building websites is too.
BA: Mp3.com is back. Has this affected activity on purevolume? How do you feel about the new mp3.com?
Brett: We haven’t seen any difference in growth or traffic since the launch of the new mp3.com and our traffic is always rising significantly. The new mp3.com is much different. The focus on indie artists is gone. I really haven’t seen a negative effect.
BA: Are you in any bands yourself?
Brett: No, i’d have to say my creativity is more on the visual side.
BA: I see. On the spot, right now name five songs in your playlist, go!
Brett: This is going to come out skewed because I’m listening to the new Warped Tour comp:
God’s Love (Bad Religion)
To Youth (Flogging Molly)
Anchors Away (Bouncing Souls)
No News is Good News (A New Found Glory)
Lights Out (Letter Kills)
BA: Nice. Brett, you sit there and roll out the red carpet for thousands of other bands out there. What is your favorite band?
Brett: Thats a tough one. I’d have to say Less than Jake is pretty much at the top, I’ve become a huge Fall Out Boy fan since PV started. They’re up there now too. There’s a lot…its really tough to one band at the top. Of course I listen to a lot more indie music now, but realistically im listening to music thats on PV most of the time.
BA: Understood. Now, you’ve seen bands sign up for PV and go from getting 1 download a day to over 500 a day over the course of a week. Some never get more than one stream a week, some start off getting hundreds a day, what would you say the key to being a success on purevolume is?
Brett: Well, first off, you have to be good. No one is going to be compelled to tell their friends about a band that sucks.
BA: Exactly
Brett: A lot of young bands have done a really good job of marketing themselves on a grassroots level. Where ever they go, they’re getting the message out.
BA: But it is a reality that there are some amazing bands out there that just never get discovered. What is the key to getting heard on purevolume?
Brett: For short periods of time, there may be some amazing bands that no one knows about, but a lot of the bands have a strong local/regional following before they begin smart marketing online. The amazing bands surface pretty quickly. Once the ball is rolling, the word gets out. Its tough to narrow it down to one thing to get heard, but if you’re confident in your music, every one of your friends should know your songs and where to find your music online and they should be spreading the word whenever they get the chance, especially at other shows.
BA: Good advice. Now Brett, let us in on the future of purevolume… How can you possibly improve the fastest growing music community on the web? Are you even going to bother?
Brett: Flattered…but we still have a lot of work to do on PV, we’ll be spending the next few months improving functionality and creating the new features that we’ve begun to lay out; once “the basics” are done, we’ll begin to focus more on an offline presence in the form of shows/tours, etc.
BA: Sweet! What is your view on the controversy over song sharing and the RIAA and the bands that go crazy about it?
Brett: Well, for small bands, the best possible way to promote their music is for people to be sharing it. If people are sharing your music, it means their promoting you. I think it only has a negative effect on the really well known bands. In the case of smaller bands, the more their music is out there, the more albums they’ll sell.
BA: Exactly… well Brett, I thank you very much for your time and good luck to you and your website. Please don’t ever spontaneously go down like someone ELSE we know!
Brett: Thank you!
Please visit www.pureVOLUME.com to check out new music or sign your band up today!
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